Recession creates new students

By Jennifer Patil

The economic recession has most significantly impacted workers who are less skilled and who are paid less at their jobs.

The workers who have suffered the least impact to their job status from the downturn have been those who have at least a bachelor’s degree or higher.

One reason lower-skilled workers have had their jobs cut or salaries reduced is due to the transfer of their jobs to other countries around the world whose workers earn lower wages for the same labor.

What this transformation from a manufacturing-based economy to a knowledge-based economy means is that individuals in fields that are now ripe for outsourcing are left competing for a much smaller number of the low-skilled jobs available in the United States.

They have to increase their employability to higher-paying jobs by finishing and continuing their education at the stage in life they are in now.

President Barack Obama has challenged our nation to increase the number of college-educated adults in the United States by the year 2020 to a number that rivals those in other countries around the world.

But there have been obstacles in the past to getting a college degree that are now being eliminated.

People already working but eager to move into management positions used to face the stress of finding time to go to class and study. Adults who have families had to balance a learning program and their everyday life responsibilities.

There is also a group of adults who are not even typically considered working age who now want to enhance their learning skills – the baby boomers at or approaching retirement age.

Instead of working toward retirement, they are now looking at furthering their education and starting second careers.

They are looking for meaningful paid work to help support them in their older age since people are living longer and many have suffered great loss to their retirement assets during the recession.

Higher education is answering the needs of lower-skilled, lower-paid workers, working adults and retirees by offering online courses as well as night and weekend courses.

Online programs give working adults and adults with increased demands and responsibilities an opportunity to excel and learn in a way that would not be possible otherwise.

Programs are now also offering night and weekend courses for adults to attend after working hours.

In spurring these changes to higher education, Americans are turning what has been a bleak and unfruitful few years for our economy into a satisfying, productive and engaging trend: the number of emerging adult learners and increased programs and options for adults seeking more education to improve their career arcs.

I enrolled in a completely online master’s program at the University of Georgia where I am studying to improve my employability and to be able to continue my learning process.

I am doing this despite the challenges of being a full-time working mother of two, as well as wife and homeowner, and all the responsibility that comes along with all of those roles.

I applaud adults for understanding the need to further their education and I am excited about the opportunities institutions of higher learning are offering to us all.

I encourage more adults to continue their learning process.

Jennifer Patil is associate dean of enrollment services at Oxford College of Emory University.